Car Trim
Mirrors
We're going to be modeling some mirrors now, and we'll begin by using the good old tried and true spline projection technique to get the geometry started.
Draw a rectangular linear spline in the side view that outlines roughly where the base of the mirror will attach to the body. I have used an 8-point closed spline... four corner points, and four midpoints on each side. This allows for more detail/ control when the spline is projected.
Speaking of which, project the spline to the ZY plane, and it sticks to the car. Copy the points from the spline structure manager to a new polygon object and use the bridge tool to create the four polygons of the base.
Modify the points of the outermost polygons so the polygons are mostly towards the front of the mirror base. You can do this by simply scaling the polygons down on the Z axis, and then moving them forward on the Z axis.
Then extrude a couple times so you get a narrower post starting to protrude from the base.
Continue extruding and positioning the polygons to for m this protrusion as it extends from the mirror base outwards and upwards.
Make the protrusion end in a roughly square cage.
Bevel or extrude the front of the cage end outwards to form a little pointed flare for the object.
Create a disc object with fairly low segmentation settings, and make it editable. Position it as if it would be the mirror.
Also make sure you select all the points and run the Optimize command (points). This will weld the corner vertices of the height segment and the cap segments of the disc.
Drop the disc into the HyperNURBS hierarchy, and round the back slightly by selecting the central polygons and moving them outwards on the Z axis.
For the mirror face, select the polygons on the other cap of the disc, and do a small extrude inner to followed by an extrude back towards the back of the mirror. This creates a little lip that will be the border of chrome around the actual mirror surface.
With the same polygons selected, extrude them back out a little so the mirror surface edges sharpen up. Set these polygons as a selection set, and apply a very highly reflective mirror material to that selection set.
Select those base polygons and use the extrude and/or bevel tools to create a nice solid smooth looking base for the mirror object.
I used the bevel tool to taper the shape of the base smaller as it extended away from the car surface.
Tilt the mirror slightly (on the Y axis) as if it were able to be viewed by the driver... :-)
Select the very central polygons on the back of the disc and create a little bulb just to make the connection to the mirror base look a little better.
Here's a render of the car with mirrors in place.
What's even better is with the right material, the mirrors actually work! Simple raytracing, I know, but I never get tired of cool stuff like that, heh heh... :-)
I've stopped short of including 5 or 6 renders of the back end of the car as viewed through a driver's seat camera pointed at the mirror... I'm sure I'm the only one who finds that interesting! ;-)
On to some door handles...